The original trilogy of Star Wars films, spearheaded by George Lucas were critical and commercial successes. However, in 1997 Lucas released the “Special Edition” of the films for the trilogy’s 20th anniversary, which featured extensive changes to the original theatrical cuts.
The original cuts have since become scarce. However, a group of Star Wars fans, known as Team Negative One have reportedly almost completely digitally restored the original cuts in 4K using 35-millimeter prints of the original trilogy.
The project is headed by Robert Williams, who along with his team have spent almost a decade restoring the films.
“They’re not really upset that he made the changes, because some of them are pretty cool and actually make the films better. They’re really upset that he didn’t also release the original version alongside it. Just put two discs in the box. We’d have been happy.”
Williams made the above statement to The New York Times, explaining the motivation behind preserving the original cuts of the trilogy. However, the publication also noted that Team Negative One’s activities were not authorized as they worked with film reels meant to be destroyed or returned. Hence, the legality of Team Negative One’s restored versions of the original trilogy is questionable.
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Given Lucas’ strong feelings about the Special Editions, it is evident that the filmmaker would be unhappy with fans trying to preserve the original cuts, which he referred to as “rough drafts” in the past.
According to reports, Lucas allegedly voiced his disappointment with fans demanding a high-resolution release of the original cuts in the following words:
“Grow up. These are my movies, not yours.”
Similarly, when the National Film Registry aimed to preserve 1977’s Star Wars (later retitled Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope), Lucas reportedly refused to provide them with a copy of the original theatrical release.
Lucas stated that he would no longer authorize the original version’s release, reaffirming that he did not intend for the audience to view the theatrical cuts. After Disney acquired the franchise, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy also stated that Lucas’s changes to the theatrical cuts would remain untouched. Hence, it is safe to say that Lucas would certainly be unhappy with fans still trying to preserve the original cuts.
I grew up with a VHS set that was before the 90’s redo, so mine was as close to the original cut as you could get. My son wanted to watch Star Wars for the 1st time the other day. I didn’t want to go to my mom’s house, find the VHS tapes, find a VCR, and go through all the trouble to play it in shitty non HD square screen. I just slapped on the one on Disney Plus, and man it is so cringe and hasn’t aged well. I wonder if George Lucas made it part of his deal when he sold Star Wars to Disney that his shitty cuts had to stay. It doesn’t make sense that Disney wouldn’t give the option for he original unbastardized version.
Han not just blasting Greedo in cold blood changes the scene and character immensely. They shitty singing/ dancing weird 90s CGI thing in Jabbas lair is terrible. All the 90’s CGI added in the background did not age well; didn’t look particularly good then, and sticks out like a sore thumb.
That weird walk Han does around Jabba in the additional scene kills me.
Lol yeah because Jabba was just a dude when they filmed it, and it didn’t even make the original cut. There was no tail for Han to jump over. They also made him step on Jabba’s tail for no reason which when he didn’t do in the original bc Jabba didn’t have a tail to even step on. It adds nothing to the story, and if you’re changing the character to not shoot Greedo because you want to make him less of an asshole, why’d you change it to have him step on jabbas tail a mere 5 minutes later?